Influence of habitat discontinuity, geographical distance, and oceanography on fine‐scale population genetic structure of copper rockfish ( Sebastes caurinus )

Abstract

The copper rockfish is a benthic, nonmigratory, temperate rocky reef marine species with pelagic larvae and juveniles. A previous range‐wide study of the population‐genetic structure of copper rockfish revealed a pattern consistent with isolation‐by‐distance. This could arise from an intrinsically limited dispersal capability in the species or from regularly–spaced extrinsic barriers that restrict gene flow (offshore jets that advect larvae offshore and/or habitat patchiness). Tissue samples were collected along the West Coast of the contiguous USA between Neah Bay, WA and San Diego, CA, with dense sampling along Oregon. At the whole‐coast scale (~2200 km), significant population subdivision ( F ST = 0.0042), and a significant correlation between genetic and geographical distance were observed based on 11 microsatellite DNA loci. Population divergence was also significant among Oregon collections (~450 km, F ST = 0.001). Hierarchical amova identified a weak but significant 130‐km habitat break as a possible barrier to gene flow within Oregon, across which we estimated that dispersal ( N e m ) is half that of the coast‐wide average. However, individual‐based Bayesian analyses failed to identify more than a single population along the Oregon coast. In addition, no correlation between pairwise population genetic and geographical distances was detected at this scale. The offshore jet at Cape Blanco was not a significant barrier to gene flow in this species. These findings are consistent with low larval dispersal distances calculated in previous studies on this species, support a mesoscale dispersal model, and highlight the importance of continuity of habitat and adult population size in maintaining gene flow.

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